Page 138 - Beyond Methods

126 Facilitating negotiated interaction
This microstrategy can be implemented at different levels of so- phistication. At lower levels of proficiency, you can launch the inter- action simply by preselecting one learner per week and helping him or her prepare a brief talk in advance, and then saying in class, “Please tell us about X.” At this level, you may need to allow the students to read from a prepared script, so long as it is read properly. This may be fol- lowed by a question–answer session. At higher levels, the same activ- ity may be done more systematically and more challengingly. One pos- sible way:
5.2.1 Have each of the students in your class select a topic of per- sonal interest. You should approve the topics in advance to avoid sub- jects that might be offensive to some.
5.2.2 Ask them to do library or Internet research on the topic and prepare a talk. It is perfectly all right for more than one student to se- lect the same or similar topic; the class can only benefit from the dif- ferent perspectives.
5.2.3 Ask the presenting students to make a one-page summary of the talk with some initial questions for discussion, and distribute it to all the students before the talk. This might stimulate thinking on the part of other learners.
5.2.4 Let the presenting student talk. Encourage talking rather than reading, but do not insist. As the student talks, ask the other students to take notes on key points, examples, or any questions they might want to ask later.
5.2.5 At the end of the talk, have the class react to the talk. You may wish to start the discussion with one or two questions of your own. En- courage the students to ask questions, seek clarifications, and agree or disagree with the presenter (and state their reasons).
5.2.6 After the discussion, give the presenter a few minutes to make closing remarks.
5.2.7 Finally, as moderator, you give your informal evaluation of the talk focusing mostly on its positive aspects, but you also make sugges- tions for improvement. Comment also on how the other students shared their views on the topic. And, remember to appreciate the presenter for his or her effort.
Exploratory Projects
I present two exploratory projects, one dealing with talk manage- ment and another with topic management.